DENVER, CO - MAY 05: Incumbent mayor Michael Hancock checks the polls with campaign manager Jake Martin and Happy Haynes upon receiving nearly 80 percent of the votes at first return. Hancock hosted an election night party at the EXDO Event Center on Tuesday, May 5, 2015. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Mayor Michael Hancock shakes hands with Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson at the EXDO Events Center on Tuesday night. Each held a commanding lead in early returns.

James Taurman, with his 1-year-old daughter, Beatrix, drops off ballots outside the downtown Denver Elections Division, on Tuesday. Denver residents are voting in races for the mayor, City Council, auditor and clerk.

Buoyed by what was his all-but-certain re-election Tuesday, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said his second term would take aim at long-standing challenges in the booming city.

“Tonight, we heard loud and clear that the people of Denver want four more years of progress,” Hancock told hundreds of cheering supporters at the EXDO Events Center in RiverNorth. “They want more jobs for our hard-working residents, more housing for our families, more opportunities for our children and more progress toward Denver taking its rightful place on the international stage, as a global city where everyone matters.”

He then shifted to a pressing affordability problem affecting many Denverites.

“And for the families struggling with the cost of housing — for those that believe, as I do, that a great city must be better connected, with safe, vibrant neighborhoods, and filled with compassion — we will find those solutions together,” Hancock said.

City Council results still were coming in, but it was clear even before Tuesday night that Hancock would work in his next term with a much-changed council, thanks to term limits and six open seats on the 13-member body. Four district races likely are headed for runoffs on June 2. In a couple other races, the leading candidates (Rafael Espinoza in District 1 and Paul Kashmann in District 6) have promised to bring more skepticism to development issues.

But political observers expect few roadblocks for the mayor’s initiatives.

Hancock’s own race left little doubt of his re-election, with no well-known or well-funded opponent challenging his $1.3 million campaign fundraising firewall.

He was polling at 80 percent with most ballots counted. The rest of the vote was split among three ballot-qualified citizen challengers and write-ins.

Hancock will enter his second term in July facing demands to tackle big issues, including the skyrocketing housing costs. His administration is working on plans to mount a bigger affordable housing strategy — possibly going to voters to raise recurring funding — and to increase efforts to reduce chronic homelessness.

He soon will roll out more reforms for the troubled sheriff’s department, while police struggle to rein in gang violence plaguing northeast Denver.

And with growing traffic congestion, neighborhoods far from light rail and coming commuter rail lines, including in east Denver, are demanding other transportation options.

Hancock also hopes to accelerate new commercial development on Denver International Airport’s property, if the city can end a dispute with its Adams County neighbors. His administration also has teed up an $856 million plan to remake the National Western Stock Show site into a tourism, event and education center.

At the same time, the mayor must navigate festering opposition from some in north and northeast Denver to state plans to widen and lower Interstate 70, replacing a viaduct, if it can bridge a funding gap.

A late write-in campaign for neighborhood activist Larry Ambrose also sought to channel misgivings with Hancock. He was drawing 2.3 percent of the vote.

Denver’s economy and housing market are on the upswing, but even young middle-class professionals are finding it tough to stay in Denver. They include Sven Ceelen, 29. He said he had no big beef with Hancock but couldn’t bring himself to vote for the status quo.

When he cast a ballot Tuesday afternoon at the Denver Elections Division, he voted for Sekú, a social justice activist.

At an election event last week, the Capitol Hill renter said, he listened for District 10’s council candidates to lay out their ideas to address the affordability issue.

“What to do about it? It’s so complex,” Ceelen said. “I’ve been trying to gauge what these (council) members can actually get done.”

He added: “I’ve been kicked out of, let’s see, four places,” because landlords hiked the rent beyond what he could afford. “Pretty much everyone I know is either moving out of Denver or can’t find a place to live or getting their rents raised (so much) they’re really considering whether or not they should stick around.”

Political analyst Floyd Ciruli said such issues illustrate the flip side of Denver’s recent success.

“In general, this looks like an election where the biggest complaint is that we’re doing too well,” Ciruli said.

To his supporters Tuesday, Hancock acknowledged not everyone has benefited from Denver’s recent success.

“We will meet our challenges head on,” he said, “and create that city of opportunity for every family, every business and every neighborhood.”

Jon Murray is The Denver Post's city hall reporter. His coverage focuses on Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, the workings of the City Council and city's government interactions with Denver's people, from neighborhood issues to regulation of the marijuana industry. A Colorado native, he joined The Denver Post in 2014 after reporting on city government and the legal system for The Indianapolis Star.

More Republicans are telling President Donald Trump in ever blunter terms to lay off his escalating criticism of special counsel Robert Mueller and the Russia probe. But party leaders are taking no action to protect Mueller, embracing a familiar strategy with the president — simply waiting out the storm.

President Donald Trump's attorneys have provided the special counsel's office with written descriptions that chronicle key moments under investigation in hopes of curtailing the scope of a presidential interview, according to two people familiar with the situation.